Tuesday 27 September 2016

The inner conservatives within Corbyn`s Labour Party..why a Welsh Green and Ecosocialist party is essential.




Watching the labour party conference last night I saw another tendency deep within it. It was mot the remnants of the Blairites, nor the non Corbynite parliamentary Labour party it was an inate conservatism within the ranks of the GMB and Ynite Trade unions. Unite would not look beyond the implications of jobs if Trident was scrapped. The GMB was the same over fracking. You can still here members of the Socialist Labour party rave about opening the mines again and of the value of clean coal..a veritable contradiction in terms. Its the same sort of conservatism that I saw yesterday within parts of Plaid about their attitude to renewables and paryicularly wind energy. Scotland is far ahead of Wa;es in renewable energy production because of the lack of guts within both Labour and Plaid to support it.

We live in a post industrial society, we must take on board the idea of a citizens income that is paid to people because of where they live rather than what they do. Poorer people and moderately paid people spend more of their income in the locality, they support more local services and they create more jobs because of this demand. The wealthy, the large corporations are locked into the economy of mass production, low wages and the race to the economic bottom. The ordinary people are not the ones who will exhaust the finite resources of the world that will be done by the large corporations and the hypnosis of consumerism used to keep us quiet.

Corbyn and MacDonald understand that and show signs of progress. The labour Party is a coalition and within it lurks the unimaginative inner conservative that has not joined up the thoughts of what society is, how we are citizens irrespective of our work. A citizen income would break up the right wing world view about the scrounger and the migrant. It would show that all of us who live here are Welsh, citizens and people who all contribute in numerous ways from economic production, to wisdom and insight.


There has never been a greater need for a Green party perhaps it will form part of a progressive alliance. However the value of alliance can only really happen if Plaid and others decide once and for all that they are a decentralised socialist party and that independence for Wales means far more than a Welsh brand of austerity or a Welsh “ aircraft-carrier” During the 20s and the 30s the Communist party fed a creative current into the left within Wales as whole. Perhaps this may be a role for the Greens in feeding these ideas into a Cobymite Labour Party and to keep it honest creative and critical


The brutal destruction of the Coal mines by the Thatcher government was a brutal attack on the communities of Wales. The coal industry has shaped our geography and our people but that is not all that Wales was and is. The Coal mines needed gradually phasing out and its workers retrained and given new opportunities. We must not romanticise the coal industry it was important and essential to our development and culture. We must challenge the inner conservative within that is largely macho, male and industrial. We are in a different world and there has never been more need of a Welsh Green Party that is Ecosocialist and supports an independent Wales. It must be a Wales within Europe and a non aligned, neutral country. Last year I summed it up as follows.in the Seren2020 declaration. At the weekend Paul Masson called for Scottish Labour members to support an independent Scotland it upset the conservatives within and it must cause a paroxysm of fear amongst the monolithic conservative members of Welsh Labour. The Corbynistas have a long way to go in Wales

Seren Werdd 2020 "Our aim must be to create an Independent Welsh Green party. We seek an independent socialist and green Wales. A Wales where power is devolved to the lowest possible administrative unit. A Wakes that is diverse, tolerant, open to all that does not judge or impose conformity on lifestyle, beliefs or identity. A Wales where its people are aware of it culture, history and language and which is fully bilingual and multi cultural. A Wales that supports workers rights, public services and a comprehensive welfare system. A Wales that protects the rights of animals to be free from exploitation. We are opposed to Nuclear Power and seek a Wales powered by renewables that are owned by the communities of Wales. We seek a Wales that is a non-aligned, neutral republic and which is free from the arms industry".


No comments:

Post a Comment